Vessels



Ill

ILL'

I'I l Iglu (I, PETERS, PHOTO-LITHOGRAPNEH. WASHINGTON. D C- UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

WILLIAM BALLARD, OF NEW YORK, N. Y.

CONSTRUCTING VESSELS.

l Specification 'of Letters Patent No. 12,119, dated January 2, 1855.

-have-invented a new and useful Improvement in the Construction of Vessels; and I do hereby declare that the following isv a .full and exact description thereof, reference being had to the accompanying drawings and to the references thereon.

I-Ieretofore the bows of vessels have been constructed in two ways, one called a bluff bow; and the other a clipper bow, the forms of which are well understood, the former being rounded to nearly the form of a semicircle from where the formation of the bow commences to the stem of the vessel, and the latter being but slightly rounded or made straight. The change from the bluff bow to the clipper bow gained some advantages but it lost others; that is, the bluff bow possesses some advantages which the clipper bow does not, and the clipper bow possesses some advantages which t-he bluff bow' does not.

The object and nature of my invention is to combine the advantages of each, that is of both the bluff and thc clipper bow and to obviate their disadvantages, in one and the same construction, as well as to add other advantages. Being a ship carpenter and having examined with great care the quality and relative merits of the bows in use, I saw that the advantage of the deck room afforded by the bluff bow was very desirable and 'especially so for vessels of war, but that, that form was entirely inappropriate where great speed was required; I also saw that the advantage. of speed in favor of the clipper bow was of great importance, and for many purposes indispensable, but that, that form was objectionable in contracting the deck room and diminishing buoyancy forward, and therefore while attaining the advantage of speed it lost the advantages mentioned. I thn applied myself to the subject with a View of devising some construction which would at least successfully unite the advantages of each form, and at length discovered that a bow of an ogee form would accomplish the object, giving deck room equal to that of a bluff bow, and at the same time secure as easy or an easier entrance in the water than a clipper bow, while it would retain the desirable forward buoyancy. I also discovered that by constructing the stern of a vessel in an ogee form it could be extended out so as to effectually attain the important desideratum of removing the propeller and rudder at such distance from the run of the vessel as to give them easier lines and better action on the water.

In the drawings Figure 1 aft of line 2 is a side View of the stern of a vessel constructed according to my improvement with a propeller P, and rudder It, attached, and Fig. 2 is a plan view of a vessel constructed according to my improvement showing the ogee form of bow and stern.

In a vessel of 100 feet long the ogee bow should extend, only about 15 feet back of the stem of the vessel, and should be constructed in like proportion in case the vessel be of any other length. The point where the formation of the bow commences is shown by the line l in Fig. 2. For vessels of war this form of bow is especially advantageous as it aHords ample room for port holes, guns and men and for firing forward. and in a forward direction while it at the same time secures all the advantages of speed, strength and forward buoyancy.

My improvement in the stern is constructed by extending the stern in an ogee form say about eight feet comlnencing at the quarter breadth line each side of the center line, as shown in Fig. l aft of line 2. This brings the stern to a form of easy lines aft and especially well adapted to receive a propeller and to secure eflicient action of the water thereon.

I-Iaving now described my invention what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent is- The construction of the bows and the Sterns of vessels substantially as described.

WILLM. BALLARD.

Witnesses:

MILES B. ANDRUs, JAMES A. VAN RAUST. 

